If you see a few persons taking a nap at bus shelters, blame it on the authorities concerned. Even after receiving a missive from the office of the police commissioner, listing bus shelters coming in the way of traffic, the civic body is yet to act on it.
When Deccan Herald vetted into the issue, what came to the fore was, just a few days into his transfer, the then MCC commissioner K S Raykar had inspected five such bus shelters. He had directed assistant commissioners of all nine zones for follow up action, but to no avail.
According to statistics available at the city corporation, there are 87 shelters in the city (excluding those built by the KSRTC). In a letter on April 10, the office of the police commissioner had termed 33 bus shelters, under Narasimharaja traffic and Devaraja traffic police limits, as unscientific. Among them, 23 are located in N R police jurisdiction alone.
In some cases, multiple bus shelters — with no purpose — stand idle on the same stretch. Take for example, the bus shelter in front of Hinduja Global Solutions Limited, on New Kantaraja Urs road in Saraswatipuram.
Instead of buses, cars stop here, sorry parked here, under the shelter till dusk. In front of TTL College, official apathy is coming between the passengers and the buses.
Whenever a bus stops, passengers (those sitting under the shelter) have to make way through the parked cars. Needless to say, the parking lot is situated right in front of the shelter.
Bus shelters are often occupied by waywards, who are found supinely sleeping to the hilt. Saroja from Ramakrishna Nagar said bus shelters near K R Hospital are always occupied by such people who lie down for hours together making it miserable for people who stand here.
Senior citizen Srinivas, a resident of Vontikoppal, said the bus stop in front of a huge shopping complex in his area also has such problems. “Being old, we cannot stand for a long time.
These people do not seem to have a care about that. Either they are drunk or not in their senses. So it is useless to wake them up or argue,” he said.
The problem of destitutes seems to be a knotty one, which does not have a single pronged solution. However, what it deserves is a pondering over by authorities concerned who have the power to come up with solutions and implement them. Looks like the inclination for this is sorely missing.
